Poverty and homelessness — nobody in the political world talks about these things because poor folks don’t have money, and in politics, money talks.

But when an overnight homeless shelter operated by a little church — Apostolic Pentecostals of Rockford — was shut down by the city of Rockford on March 10, these twin issues inconveniently popped up again. The church was the second whose shelter was closed by the city; the other one was Five Gates Church, in 2011.

These shelters must have proper zoning and have sprinkler systems, the city says. As churches they don’t have to have sprinklers. But if people sleep there overnight, they do, the city says. Hmmm.

I’ve taken part in all-night vigils in a church without sprinklers. Churches have overnights for their youth groups.

I’ve also been in churches where, on any given Sunday morning, half the congregation is asleep. Does this mean the church has become a shelter? Or would that take a supermajority of sleepers?

Fire codes are arbitrary. Whether they are capricious is open to interpretation.

There will always be poor and homeless people — the Bible says that. In Rockford, with its persistent high unemployment rate above the national and state averages, there are more of them. We are not importing these people; we are creating more of them because we are miserable at creating jobs. We do have wonderful banquets about creating jobs, though.

What Christians are commanded to do about poverty is outlined in Matthew 25. It contains this warning about ignoring the plight of the poor:

“‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” Hmmm. I’ve never heard any reverend preach about the “eternal punishment” part of that verse.

Pretty sober stuff. But how do we go about doing what it says? The two churches I mentioned, and many Christian organizations, believe that personal salvation through Christ is the powerful force that turns lives around. Providing food and shelter, job training, permanent housing is a means to that end. They reject the use of taxpayers’ money because that would stop them from practicing their faith.

Mayor Larry Morrissey and his “Boone/Winnebago Continuum of Care,” a group of 30 agencies and governments in Winnebago and Boone counties, take a somewhat different approach, based on holistic goals and Department of Housing and Urban Development guidelines.

Morrissey said that while he appreciates Apostolic Pentecostals’ desire to help the homeless, “There are rules you have to follow. Life-safety codes don’t have to do with homeless shelters, but if you’re going to put people overnight, whether it’s a hotel or a shelter, rules apply.”

Page 2 of 2 - When working with the homeless population, Morrissey said, “you’re dealing with mental health issues, people with criminal records, sex offenders, people who tend to be violent individuals. The single address that has the most calls of service (police and fire) is the Rescue Mission. That’s not a knock, but it’s a particularly volatile population.”

Morrissey has invited the Rev. Dave Fredericks, pastor of Apostolic Pentecostals of Rockford, to join the Continuum of Care.

Thursday, in the third part of this series, I’ll talk more about the Continuum of Care, including an interview with Shelton Kay, the director of community services at Crusader Community Health. Kay chairs the Continuum.